Scrying is the magical ability to find a person or an object through the use of a crystal and a map. It is one of the three basic abilities possessed by witches and warlocks. However, Leo Wyatt has also used this power when he was an Elder.

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All one has to do is hold the crystal pendant over a map of the area where it is thought the lost person or object will be. The more violent and vigorous the swing of the pendant, the closer you are to the object on the map coordinates, like a "warm or cold" method of looking for something i.e. the more vigorous the swings the "warmer" one is. The pendant will eventually pinpoint the exact location of the object or person by pulling down on to a spot on the map after a certain amount of time.

For a scry to pinpoint the exact location of something, usually an item of that person or demon is needed, like clothes or blood. Piper used the eyes of a snake to scry for a Saleel, a reptile demon, so it is assumed that the object can also be related to the thing you are scrying for. Scrying is one of the three basic powers a witch has. Elders can also use this power.

Amethyst is said to work best as the most powerful scrying substance. (This is probably taken from the real life idea that amethyst is a substance that can heavily augment one's psychic abilities, or, in this case, magical abilities.)

Modern scrying.

In Season 4, the Charmed Ones, come into contact with a Zen master and his student/daughter (Ang-lee). The latter tells the Charmed Ones that her father could use a surface of water as a looking glass into other worlds. This seems very similar to the real world method of scrying and may be the Zen master's version of it, especially as Ang-lee said it was a power and one she could learn as well as her father. In the Season 6 episode, The Power of Three Blondes, Stillman sisters, evil witches, use a bowl and some sort of powder/liquid substance to scry for and spy on the Charmed Ones. In Season 8, we discovered that Billie can scry with her computer using a GPS on-screen map and a large quartz crystal attached to her mouse, moving it over the mousepad to move it around the on-screen map. When the target was located, the on-screen map would put a red square over the area and the crystal would stick fast.

Warlocks cannot be found via scrying, unless they possess a power stolen from a witch.

Billie Jenkins developed a new way of scrying, with a larger crystal and a laptop.

In the early seasons of scrying (2,3,4 and 5), a magnet was put under the map and the point of the crystal was magnetised. The actors had to lower the crystal at a certain point and it would land on the area the magnet was put under. The magnets weren't used after these seasons, causing the crystal to drop and slide over the map sometimes (most noticeably in season 8).